Capricci: Castaldi & Pellegrini features the early 17th-century music of Bellerofonte Castaldi and Domenico Pellegrini performed by Albane Imbs and Rolf Lislevand.

Though still too little known to appreciate its priceless treasures, is nonetheless a source of fascination for performers today – and rightly so. The works of Castaldi, the theorbo player from Modena, bear witness to the fertile imagination of a character who led an extraordinary life of adventure; while Bolognese guitarist Pellegrini’s elliptical transcriptions, compiled in Armoniosi Concerti (Bologna, 1650 – the only known volume of the composer’s work), raise endless questions about how they might have been performed in their time.

Castaldi and Pellegrini show a strong attachment to a stylistic tradition arising out of the Prima Pratica, coupled with an evident taste for musical colors, textures and registers characteristic of the spirit of the Seicento – though lacking the almost impudent eccentricity of a Kapsberger or Foscarini, with their blatant attempts to break every compositional rule of the time!

Albane Imbs – Theorbo, Tiorbino & Baroque Guitar
Rolf Lislevand – Theorbo